Rosemary Hossenlopp shares her How to Be An Expert System and tips that help project managers Get Heard and Get Hired. She coaches other PM contractors and consultants on how to get more and better clients. Visit www.Expertin90Days.com Rosemary Hossenlopp shares her How to Be An Expert System and tips that help project managers Get Heard and Get Hired. *********************************** Read Rosemary Hossenlopps Blog with Free Consultant Practice Building tips, strategies and tactics at www.Expertin90Days.com ************************************* Visit http to hire Rosemary Hossenlopp for your next event. *************************************** Project Manager Expert Presentation Series on How to Get Hired Consultant and Contractor Coach IT Project Manager Project Management Trainer Business Requirements Speaker Professional Speaker, Author and Consultant Rosemary Hossenlopp is known in the IT industry for requirements results. She coaches other consultants on how to align themselves to current market challenges to get more and better clients. When Rosemary is not consulting or coaching, she is learning, writing, running, or socializing in Silicon Valley. Follow Rosemary on Twitter at: www.twitter.com
5 leading characteristics of project managers
I have been privileged in my many years of professional activities to meet many project managers both home and abroad. I discovered that we have so many schooled and certified professional but very few real leaders. According to a Survey Carried out by KPMG of 252 organisations, technology is not the most critical factor that determines project success. Inadequate project management implementation constitutes 32% of project failures, lack of communication constitutes 20%, and unfamiliarity with scope and complexity constitutes 17%. Accordingly 69% of project failures are due to lack and/or improper implementation of project management methodologies.
The above project failure indices are directly or indirectly the project manager’s shortcoming. The most popular definition of leadership I believe is influence. As a project manager, the ability to inspire the entire project team toward achieving the desired goal and project objective is key to successful project implementation. Some project managers are simply administrators, while some are project coordinators. However, the game of being a ‘leader’ project manager is far more than just administration or coordination. I gave presentations and facilitated workshops on this subject in our numerous professional forums. Many times, beyond the presentation, it was the debate with the novice and the experienced project managers about what are the most important skill set that drives me to further increase my study and concepts in this area.
I made sure that my points are not out of head knowledge or some form of pseudo perception of the ideal. I have carefully studied exceptional project managers and have documented my discovery not just for classroom purposes but for life application.
All the points mentioned below are crucial for superlative project governance
Give attention to detail
Communicate to be understood
Learn to be a power negotiator
Be a positive thinker
Be as flexible as you can
1. Give attention to details
Details are critical for the following points
It is important not just to have a vision but also to know what are the scope and all exclusions of the vision.
Don’t just understand the project’s objectives but have a detailed direction on how to achieve those objectives
Project plan. A well defined and clearly communicated project plan taking into consideration all known factors like time, cost, risks etc
In our very lives today details are not common place. An average Nigerian working professional does not run a budget, neither does he have a retirement plan. He just wakes up everyday and goes to work without a clear cut mission of how long he intend to stay on the job and step-by-step plan to get him out when the time comes. The same attitude is carried on to our projects. Projects are different from processes. We must have very detailed parameters governing not just our projects but also our lives.
I have discovered people will naturally yield and give more to a vision than a need. The vision therefore must be very clear and unambiguously defined. What is the use of a vision that stakeholders cannot relate to because it is not well explained. As a manager with project team to guide and provide leadership to, you must adapt the vision to each person and their role. This is necessary for simplicity sake. Though details must be achieved on all that has to do with the project at hand, simplicity should not be compromised.
2. Communicate to be understood
Now that attention has being given to details, it is important that every member of the project team and stakeholder understands the details of the task at hand. It is important that we integrate and communicate tactically all the success parameters of the project: financial, professional, technical, human, process, etc. The integration and adaptation exercise is both complex and necessary and only its outcome can we use in communicating and explaining the project’s vision and objectives in simple and understandable ways.
Furthermore, the communication of the vision must be adapted to each category of project stakeholder-the technical team and all suppliers, the future users of the project’s outcome, the sponsors etc All may have different and nevertheless very justifiable expectations from the project. It is necessary to deliver this communication in an extremely precise, simple and concise way.
A typical example of a successful project communication line was a Cost Logic System Implementation Project. The vision was that the project outcome was going to allow the whole company to decide and forecast project cost and serve as budgetary guideline for all projects across the world, at every hierarchical level, and for each of the divisions and product lines. The communication per type of stakeholder looked like this:
For the technicians, the fact that we were migrating towards a leading software package in the industry (Oracle eBusiness suite not to mention it),
For the finance guys, a centralized consolidated management information system that enhances transparency on cost analysis and provides guidelines in deciding bid processes,
For the decision-makers, system containing indisputable figures, access to the data via queries and a reporting environment,
For the end-users, training courses, a homogeneous, ergonomic and functional user interface, with detailed processes on-line.
In other to overcome communication barriers, project managers must establish clear lines of communication and keep stakeholders constantly informed about the development of the project. The following techniques can help:
Keep a thorough knowledge of stakeholders’ needs
Use stakeholders’ preferred method of interaction
Keep an open-door policy
Interpret and clarify policies and procedures
Motivate staff and foster teamwork
3. Learn to be a power negotiator
The bottom line of every investment is profit. Projects are typical of investments, whether we measure profit in monetary value or not. A project is only a project when it helps us achieve certain benefits or objectives. It is therefore important that we do not lose sight of the fact that project success is or will be measured in terms of parameters like cost, time and achieved benefits.
A project manager is a better performer than his contemporary not because he is busy but because he gets the job done on time and on budget. He is even more celebrated when we get it done with some change left. According to Microsoft® Encarta negotiation is resolving of disagreements: the reaching of agreement through discussion and compromise. Because of the varying interest represented on your project it is just normal for us to have many conflicting ideas, desires and concepts. Not being able to bring all part to focus on the final project goal as a project manager is digging the grave for the project.
Negotiation, in a project context, can be used for selling, purchasing, staff (e.g. contracts), borrowing (e.g. loans) and transactions, along with anything else that you feel are applicable for your project. The negotiation capability of a project manager can make a whole lot of difference in how well the project at hand thrives.
Question to answer before starting a negotiation process
Why am I negotiating?
What do I expect to gain?
Why is this important to me or my project?
What am I expected to have to offer.
Answering the above questions honestly will help you fully understand your needs and wants. You will be able to quickly determine if continuing a negotiation is worth your time.
Basic Negotiation Strategy
Never discuss settlement terms until the end of the process, when both parties are committed to trying to resolve the situation. Learn as much as possible about the issue at hand, determine if this is really what you need or want, wait until they indicate that they really want or need to settle.
Find out the most the other person will pay for something or the least they are willing to sell for so you can couch your initial offer or response to strategically position your offer or proposal.
Try to get the other person to make the first offer or proposal. Manipulating the other person into making the opening proposal allows you to set the parameters of the negotiation to your advantage.
Carry out random sampling or market test before sitting down. This will help you establish reasonable parameters for the negotiation. The key to a successful negotiation is keeping your proposals and counters within a range of reasonableness. Do not undermine your credibility by appearing ill-informed or overly aggressive.
You need to know when to bring the negotiation to a close. Over negotiating often kills deals or agreements that should have been made.
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